The Warlock's Way
The Warlock's Way is a single-player role-playing gamebook written by Andrew Chapman and Martin Allen, illustrated by John Blanche and originally published in 1986 by Puffin Books. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is unnumbered in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-095314-0) and was sold as part of a boxset along with The Warrior's Way. There are currently no announced plans to republish this book as part of the Scholastic series. Creation The Trial of Kingship - Back Cover (1986 Boxset)}} Introduction The book in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. (see Game System) Unique Rules :For information on the attributes action and status see Clash of the Princes *magic appears as a 2d6 plus 12 roll. - pg.11 There are separate rules for combat with magic and in all uses of magic a roll of 6 indicates a failed spell. - pg.14-15 The spells available are: Aura of Invincibility, Befuddle, Clumsy, Death Blast, Empower, Nimble, Restore, Shade, Sleep, Strength, Weaken, and Zap. - pg.19-21 *Provisions only restore 2 stamina points each time. - pg.116 Equipment List No equipment list is given in the "Introduction" bar the provisions, the rest being listed in "The Trial of Kingship". - pg.25 *Staff *Horse *10 Provisions *10 Gold Pieces Cover and Illustrations Covers The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by John Blanche. Illustrations The interior illustrations were by John Blanche. There were 32 full page illustrations and 10 minor repeated illustrations scattered throughout the text (the minor art is identical to the companion book The Warrior's Way). The paragraphs with a full page illustration were (* indicates an illustration identical to that of The Warrior's Way): 1, 12*, 28, 43, 57*, 73, 88*, 100, 113, 126, 140, 156, 174, 187, 201, 214, 233, 250*, 266, 286, 300, 313, 325, 340, 357*, 373, 387, 403, 420, 440, 455, 470 and 495. The colour map on the inside front cover was by Dave Andrews. Intertextual References Other Media Main Characters YOU: Lothar *Clovis *Death that Awaits *Djinn *Dragesima the Witch-Hunter *Electron - Lord of the Storm *Faerie Queen *Imperial Tax Collector *King Peleus *Sweeney Todd *The Nightmare Locations *Dragon Hove *Gundobad *Isle of Orcmoot *Kalamdar *Kingdom of Peleus *Lake of Death *Northern Waste *River Scamder *The Great Ocean Encounters *Amazons *Black Knight *Djinn *Giant *Giant Rat *Gremlins *Guards *Heads/Nine-Headed Hydra *Hobgoblins *Humans - Air Brigands/Henchmen/Retainers/Sailors/Slave-Trader/Thugs/Wife/Witch *Imperial Tax Collector *Lava Worm *Lizard Men *Mermen *Moth *Ogres *Orcs *Publican *Salamander *Shark *Spear Wielder *Stygian Imps *Thunder Beasts *Troll *Wight *Witch-Hunter *Wood Sprite *Zombies Further Notes *As Lothar, you meet a monk who tells you to find four Discs of Knowledge, but, although circular, these objects certainly aren't discs. *Bill and Bert the Ogres have rather bizarrely different stats in the two books – Lothar fights them fighting as one relatively weak individual, but Clovis has to fight both of them separately (and they have stronger stats). Errors *The Adventure Sheet and "The Trial of Kingship" on the contents page are listed in the wrong order. *Many of the instant death references and/or spell failures are remiss in reminding the player to alter the action and status scores to 1. *(235) refers to possession of an object called the Cat's Eye (presumably a gemstone) that would not appear to occur anywhere else in the adventure. *(2) gets its options mixed up - it should be turn to (256) to head towards a cluster of low hills, and turn to (140) to wander westwards through a wood. *(274) features a tinderbox mysteriously becoming part of your equipment when it is lacking from the start. *The colour map by Dave Andrews is (other than showing two cities called Gundobad and Kalamdar) completely at odds with large sections of the adventure. Tangible features of the adventure's text either do not appear, or are not named, and one thing that is named on the map, Dragon Hove, is not represented in the text. Comments by Andrew Chapman on Demian Katz's gamebook list have indicated there were communication problems between the -based writers and the publishers at the time. *(190) says that Clovis you encounters the “dead body of a monstrous three-headed Hydra” which usually is correct. However there is an unlikely event where Lothar's transformation spell misfires, creates a nine-headed Hydra and then manages to kill the beast. *A similar problem presents itself at (51). If Lothar goes first, creates the nine-headed Hydra then dies, Clovis should meet with that instead of the regular three-headed one. *It is impossible to possess all four "Discs of Knowledge". Dedication Thanks to Keith, Gail and Karl Special thanks to Dennis Moyle - pg.5 See Also *''Deathlord'' *''Sky Lord'' Reviews External Links *Character Sheet - Retrieved 2019-11-20 *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=11 Fighting Fantasy at Gamebooks.org] - Retrieved 2019-11-20 *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=1071 Clash of the Princes at Gamebooks.org] - Retrieved 2019-11-20 *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=1073 The Warlock's Way at Gamebooks.org] - Retrieved 2019-11-20 References